Cherry Broken

A soldiers first nights in Iraq.

 Cherry Broken

 As your buddy slaps you on the back, he says, we are going to the sandbox. I state yes, as we walk to the DFEC.

Little did I know that mine and the lives of many were about to change. A couple of weeks later we landed in Bagdad.A sence of 

excitement, and fear filled the air.A strange sence of all the perfumes had been mixed together.As we get our gear we can't help but 

wonder what lay out there for us.Time put all that trainning to use as we are handed what would be our atire for the next year.

After a much needed safety breifing to get our heads out of the clouds we are then shown our bunks.Mine was closest to the front gate.

According to the sargent who was doing the safety briefing that was one of the worst places to be. S**t, no way to see out. 

All the windows are blocked by ply wood. I almost feel closterphobic.If things started to get heavy my barracks would be amoung 

the first to be called.That first night I slept in my uniform. Just outside I could hear the morters going off.The sound

of them scared the crap out of me. My room mate just stated, you will get used to that. She lied I never did.No matter

how far away they were the sound of the morters scared the crap out of me.I remember thinking that first night, why did I have to 

to come to this s**t hole? Other than the morters going off that night was pretty univentful.

  

   After a day of housing I was glad to be in the safety of the barracks.I still would not take off my uniform. That made my 

room mate laugh.That night we were woke up by morter fire.It was very close. The day I longed for to see some action was 

about to happen.A second latter we heard an alarm sound, then a knock at the door that said it's time to go.

Five minutes latter with our eyes still heavy with sleep we were loaded into a five ton.I looked at my room mate

confused. I will never forget what she said to me. It's time to pop your cherry. As we rolled up to a village about 7 miles south

of Bagdad there was a smell in the air that I could not identify.Later I would find out that it was the smell of

burnning flesh. It was bad to see, but seeing the woman and children was the worst. A strange silence engulfed the town.

Damn, I remember thinking what the hell did we walk into?  My life and many other's were about to change forever.

As we climbed out of the five ton we here pops go off around us.Someone shouts contact get down, engage. My room mate did'nt get

down fast enough. A bullet had caught her in the arm.  A string of profanity comes from her mouth as she falls from the 

five ton.As I get her to a safe place she says, damn insergants. I did'nt know what to say, I had never seen someone shot before.

As I looked with shock all I could do is let my trainning take over.With another blast I was in the air.I hit the ground hard.

We were inches from an I.E.D., and I was thrown a few feet away next to a lifeless corpse. My room mate was not so lucky. 

She told some shrapnal that killed her.

   It's been years since that night and I can still feel the sweet on my brown, and the smell in the air. I and many 

others do not have outward scares. When we returned to the States we reacted to things like we were still there.Always on alert we 

jumped at everyday noises. We would yell hit the ground. Latter we would find out the we had what is known as PTSD. (Post Tramatic Stress Disorder)

A life time of medication and therapy is what we had to look forward to. I remember thinking to myself, this is all bull s**t 

as I left. I just needed sometime to settle down. My anger got worse, and little things would set me off.I completely over reacted.

I was attracting the attention of the those higher up than me and not in a good way. The straw that broke the camels

back was when I beat up a soldier for just walking up behind me. Long story short I was honorable discharge from the military

on a medical. My papers stating savere PTSD, to dangerous for military. I and many others bare this scare. This burdon. This

Was lifelong there is no cure. Forever is a long time for one to live in one moment.That is a fight in it's own.......

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[Kaylor Mason]

PTSD is truly terrible . . .